Sleeping rough to protest against the 'bedroom tax'

Abbé Keating, left, is taking part in the Derby section of a national sleepout to protest against bedroom tax along with friend Chantelle Foulds, right. They will be sleeping outside the Council House in Derby on Saturday night.

"It's going to be a peaceful protest with placards – we're not going to be jumping up and down – but we do want people to know we are there."

The Government says families with spare bedrooms should move out to free up space and has introduced the "bedroom tax" – or the under-occupancy charge – to encourage this.

Under the changes, people lose 14% of their housing benefit per week for under-occupying by one room and 25% for having two or more spare bedrooms.

But hundreds of Derby people wanting to move to smaller properties to avoid being hit with the charges have been told there are not enough smaller homes available.

The 224 Derby Homes households on the waiting list for a smaller property have been told that only 77 are available or soon will be.

So far, about 20 people have agreed to sleep outside the Council House, but Abbé hopes more will sign up before tomorrow. She said: "We're going to be in our sleeping bags and some people are bringing cardboard boxes to sleep in. It's symbolic because the bedroom tax could lead to people sleeping on the streets.

"I chose the Council House not because we are saying it's the council's fault but because we think it is symbolic as well."

Police have been informed of the sleepout and Abbé said officers had agreed to keep regular checks on the group. She said: "Ideally, I wouldn't have chosen to do it on a Saturday night because people can get rowdy but, if we didn't do it on Saturday then it wouldn't coincide with the other protests across the country.

"Hopefully, we won't get too much trouble. There are a lot of people who will be affected by this bedroom tax and we hope people will come along and join us.

"We also want people who have different views on bedroom tax to come along and give us their side.

"It would be good to have a debate because we are a democratic country."

The protesters will arrive outside the Council House at 7pm on Saturday and stay there until 9am on Sunday.

50 comments

Yes WillCroft3 I agree with what your saying, and that is were the bedroom penalty falls down big style because people over working age are exempt, I have a lovely lady next door to me was there before I moved in and I have been here 17 years, but she lives in a 3 bedroom house all on her own and is exempt, from this penalty. If this was to free up homes for people then there should be very few who are exempt, but it does not work that way, You can have someone who is working but still on there own and still living in a 3 bedroom house because its cheaper than a 1 bedroom place in the private sector and they are exempt, but someone who lives in a 2 bedroom house or flat that has been adapted for there disability needs are not exempt, yet the social services might have spent thousands fitting that home with all adaptions to meet there needs. And social services have not been given any extra money to fit a smaller place up for that person if a smaller place comes available, and of cause the smaller place has to have all the adaptions done before that person could move. It would have been better to have built smaller places first, and charge people who refused to move to a smaller place. This policy cannot work till we have the places of the right size for people to move to. This policy will make the waiting list longer not shorter. I was born in peartree Normanton and was a great place to live, Harrington st

Yes tim1959
One thing we both agree about is they should stop selling off council houses at a fraction of their true value.
I remember the rent act of the 1970s when No private landlord would rent out an unfurnished house to a new tenant, this was fine for existing tenants.
At the time three of us were working together for the railway, me, a lad from Normanton and the third one got himself a council house in Borrowash, now the Normanton lad & I where saving like crazy to scrape together a deposit on a house they were under £300 back then. Whilst the Borrowash lad was turning down overtime to go fishing or to watch the Rams play.
Back then we just laughed about it, because today all three of us own our own homes.
However today when jobs are not so plentiful, and I know people who are fed up of being on the waiting list for years only to be overtaken by other families and when they see so many empty council homes, they are the ones I feel sorry for.
Please don't get me wrong I am no Tory I am against this bedroom tax, and I would like to see people live in their own homes until they die.
But when you have a person over 60 living in a three bedroom family house on their own because their partner has died and the kids have left home, they should be offered some sort of intensive to move into a over 60s bungalow, so that a family can occupy the house, but I agree the right to buy has to come to a stop.

Yes WillCroft3 people are lucky, but the tenants cannot be blamed for the mess we are in, every council has been saying we don't have the smaller places for people to move into, councils have been proving this by releasing the figures to prove they don't have the places. Nottingham have 12,000 on there waiting list, 8,000 are couples and single people but only has 495, 1 bedroom flats, It makes no sense to have so many on waiting lists all over the country, but councils being told to sell more council houses, at big discounts, The max discounts are £70,000 or in London £100,000. Its time to scrap the right to buy. I have a lot of dealing with people who are effected by the bedroom penalty, and the amount of people who don't have a spare room but because of a rule change are classed as having a spare room. Thousands of disabled people are stuck in homes that have been adapted for there needs, and social services have spent thousands of pounds on these homes.

All social housing tenants whether they are receiving housing benefit or not whether they are working or not, should conceder themselves lucky, because they are a lot of other people out there who are braking their necks to get into social housing, and have been on the list for years.
In comparison people in social housing who only pay a Pepper corn rent, the going rent for a two bedroom bungalow even in some of the poorer areas of Derby, starts at £500 a calender month.
In these herd times when people are having their working hours reduced, many people are falling into arrears with their mortgage payments.
I understand that not all people who are on benefits are scroungers, but My point is they are a lot of people in Derby who need social housing, and cannot get one.

` Tim` you do not need FOI ....the whole world knows Blair lied and Brown let toxic debt kill us as he maxed the credit lines. Both let the whole nation crumble under a mountain of debt and sink under the EU workers stampede to feed off the welfare loopholes. Shame on you all you never admit your mistakes or take any responsibility for the mess. Now go away and dig that truth its FOI.

You see manasas the freedom of information act allows the public to find the truth out about things, does not matter what partys in power the FOI allows the truth to come out not the spin. Don't forget IDS does not even pay for his own under wear he gets tax payers to pay for them. Then DC who has millions of pounds, took time out to fill DLA forms out, and claimed other benefits as well. entitlement culture

``Tim`` sounds the right way to treat them why would you expect anything else they are an exception under their legal status, . Anyway you lot will protest about them soon losing the rights next. You just love to moan moan moan ABOUT popular welfare cuts because you have nothing to throw at the Coalition . They have wiped up your pooh, cutting the entitlement culture you bred and still turning us towards the recovery phase. Labour will never get back in power because you can never be trusted to look after the economy . Your just happy to open the UK door to more EU immigrants and fund the wasters who abusive a welfare system that we can never afford.